Saintless

We all probably know how the tradition of NORAD tracking Santa began. But, we probably didn’t know that Colonel Shoup’s granddaughter works for Google:

It just so happens that Colonel Shoup is my grandfather, which is why I’m so excited that, 52 years later, Google is joining the effort. This holiday season, NORAD has partnered with Google to use technology including Google Maps, Google Earth, iGoogle and YouTube to track Santa. I can remember tracking Santa with my grandfather as a child, and I’m so proud to see my company carry on his vision of doing something this special for kids around the world.

The countdown begins December 1st on NORAD’s website, where families can find a new kid-friendly game or activity every day until December 24th. And starting at 1:00 am PST on December 24th, you’ll be able to track Santa’s trip in real time. You can download Google Earth and add the NORAD Tracks Santa iGoogle gadget to your iGoogle page anytime, but make sure to come back to http://www.noradsanta.org/ on December 24th to download the special Santa Tracking file for an enhanced 3D Santa-tracking experience.

If you don’t already have Google Earth, go download it. Those kids in 1955 may have been able to use the latest technology from NORAD to track Santa, but watching him in 3D is something I’ll bet they never dreamed of.

And for all you people out there who don’t like the Christmas season, I think you should let go a little, and remember what Christmas was like as a child, or at least what you think that it should be like. Let the magic in. And track Santa in 3D this Christmas Eve!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2wrFnhqcSw&rel=0&border=0]

Tags: Christmas, Google, NORAD, Santa

Ok, I just got this email from the Dodd campaign, and I’m more than a little irritated. I’m not stupid, and I don’t appreciate them playing games in the hope that I am. Here’s the email from Sheryl Cohen:

Tim,

I made a few small changes to your email draft — you’ll see them below.

Would have sent to the entire list myself, but I could only figure out how to send this test.

I know you’re concerned about sending another fundraising email, but we’re only $40,000 short of hitting our November goal, and that money will help keep us on the air and talking about ending the war in Iraq and the Constitution. And honestly, our supporters online are so terrific and have come through for us every time.

Plus, with votes on the war and retroactive immunity coming up, our leadership will help keep the pressure on other presidentials to keep their word.

Ask people to give at this link so we can track the goal publicly.

http://chrisdodd.com/goal

Thanks,

Sheryl Cohen
Campaign Manager, Chris Dodd for President

On Nov 30, 2007, at 10:53 AM, Tim Tagaris wrote:

>

Chris Dodd for President
Dear Friend,

Think about it for a second. Do you truly know what you’ll get from the other candidates if they win the nomination?

If you really want the answer to that question, don’t ask a person where they are going — ask them where they have been.

Why do some candidates spend as much time apologizing for a career full of bad votes as they do talking about how they’ll remedy the fallout if elected?

Why can’t we get the simplest of answers to the straight questions from others?

And why do some just flat out skip the tough votes?

From authoring the Family and Medical Leave Act to his often single-handed efforts to restore the Constitution, you know what to expect from a Dodd Administration.

We set a goal about a week and a half ago to raise $100,000 online and we’ll need your help right now if we’re going to meet it.

Please get us there by contributing $25 right now.

http://chrisdodd.com/goal

Thirty-four days.

If you feel strongly about our fight to end the war in Iraq, prevent war with Iran, and restore the Constitution, we need your support right now.

Our field operation is humming along and our current “Restoring the Constitution and Rule of Law tour” is drawing larger crowds than we’ve seen at any point in the campaign.

But we need your help to keep it going.

Thirty-four days.

Your contribution right now will ensure we have the resources necessary to continue the fight through January 3rd.

http://chrisdodd.com/goal

You’ve come through for us every time.

Not much time left.

Let’s get it done.

Tim Tagaris
Chris Dodd for President

contribute

Paid for by Chris Dodd for President, Inc.
PO Box 51882
Washington, DC 20091
Info@ChrisDodd.com
To stop receiving email from Dodd for President, Inc., unsubscribe here.

This is just stupid and desperate, and it makes me wish I could take back the one contribution he did get from me. I’m glad he has no chance at getting elected, because he’s not man enough to just ask for money (through email, no less) and has to play mind games hoping to get more from me. That’s not what I want to see from a potential president. Dodd, you’re off me “good guy” list.

Tags: Chris Dodd

The DNC Fall Meeting is happening today, and if you want some Democratic warmth to get you through the winter, check out the live streaming video, or download the speeches (later). Apparently all the presidential candidates will be speaking, as will Howard Dean.

Tags: DNC, Howard Dean

From Daily Kos:

Hey, kids! Can’t get enough of the “Rudy expensed his adultery, then tried to cover it up” scandal, but starting to get sick of using all those words to convey what you’re talking about? Sensibly refusing to lame out and call it “Rudy-gate?” Appreciative of all the hard work being done by the crack TPM investigative team on Rudy’s sordid past, but not in love with TPM’s “Shag Fund” sobriquet? Well, the DKos editorial team is right with you!

That’s why we’re inviting you to enter the 2008 Name That Rudy Scandal Contest. Somewhere out there, there’s a clever Kossack that can perfectly and succinctly encapsulate the adultery, taxpayer abuse, and Nixonian coverup attempts that make this scandal so much fun.

Submit your entries below[original article here] in your comment’s subject line. Explanations and whatnot can go in the comment body, though if your entry needs explaining, it’s probably not that great. Enter as many times as you like. The winner will be selected today or tomorrow by the DKos editors, and will receive A) copious recognition for their contribution to the annals of American political history, and B) very possibly something tangible, TBA, at a later time.

Good luck, and good scandalmongering!

I think Sex on the City is my favorite, although Pay to Play was good, too.

Tags: Rudy Guiliani, scandals

The new xkcd:

And the alt – “And I was really impressed with how they managed to shock the Goatse guy.”

It’s really telling if you get this one without cheating or doing unwise internet searches (you really don’t want to click that, I promise). Of course, having a prior roommate of mine who shall remain nameless (CoughMarkCough) send me a link and forever scarring me into twitching when I hear or read “Goatse” is my excuse. What’s yours? Or are you claiming innocence?

xkcd store

This is an event 10 months in the making, and it’s finally here! On December 8, Obama’s Utah Headquarters will officially be open! Please join us to celebrate at the Open House. Doors open at 11 am, and the presentations begin promptly at noon.

If you’re interested in volunteering, we would love to have you! My phone is 801-386-7729, just give me a call and we’ll go from there. The address of our new office is 1747 South 900 West, in the UBDA building.

There are a few needs that we’re reaching out to the community to help us out with, in the form of in-kind donations. (Please note – if you want to help with any of these items, please contact one of us before bringing them, to make sure they are still needed and to take care of any in-kind donation forms that might be needed.)

General Office Items Needed

• Computers
• Phones
• Printer
• Fax machine
• UT State Flag

Open House Items Needed

• Helium Tank
• Balloons
• Ribbons for Ballons
• DJ (about 3 1/2 hours of music)
• PA Equipment (might already have, not confirmed)
• Streamers
• Poster boards
• Markers
• Tape
• String
• Signs (professionally printed)

I really can’t wait for this to happen, and I hope to see you (and your family and friends) there!

Tags: Obama UT HQ

Because tasering a man in front of his pregnant wife and the child in the car wasn’t enough, the cops in Ohio went one step further.

Apparently, a pregnant woman tried to leave her 1 year old child with authorities because she was “tired of playing games” with the father. It’s a bit unclear on what happened, but the cop didn’t want to let her leave without answering questions, so she decided to leave with the 1 year old.

Let me pause a moment. This sounds like a battered woman to me. Why else would she be doing this?

So, the cop decided to force her to the ground and taser her. The article hints that the cop had no way of knowing she was pregnant. Which tells me that if cops can’t tell by looking that someone (say who is pregnant or has a heart condition) could be majorly harmed by tasering them, is the use of the taser acceptible?

I think that cops should be allowed to use a taser in very limited circumstances, and any time they violate the rules, punishment should ensue. Tasers aren’t toys, people.

Oh, and the officer remains on duty. I bet all of Ohio feels safer now.

Crooks and Liars has more.

Update: Kelly Ann Booth, A Progressive Utahn has a really good commentary on the whole story about tasers.

Tags: Ohio, taser

[Video auto starts and was removed due to complaints. Check out the web site to see it]

Sweeney Todd, The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Does it get any better than Johnny Depp in a Tim Burton film?

SYNOPSIS: Johnny Depp and Tim Burton join forces again in a big-screen adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s award-winning musical thriller “Sweeney Todd.” Depp stars in the title role as a man unjustly sent to prison who vows revenge, not only for that cruel punishment, but for the devastating consequences of what happened to his wife and daughter. When he returns to reopen his barber shop, Sweeney Todd becomes the Demon Barber of Fleet Street who “shaved the heads of gentlemen who never thereafter were heard from again.” Joining Depp is Helena Bonham Carter as Mrs. Lovett, Sweeney’s amorous accomplice, who creates diabolical meat pies. The cast also includes Alan Rickman, who portrays the evil Judge Turpin, who sends Sweeney to prison and Timothy Spall as the Judge’s wicked associate Beadle Bamford and Sacha Baron Cohen is a rival barber, the flamboyant Signor Adolfo Pirelli.

All I want for Christmas is Johnny Depp.

Tags: Christmas, Johnny Depp, Sweeney Todd, Tim Burton

Apparently, taking phone calls while speaking at events are a norm for the GOP, and not just Rudy.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yj_okz7ZwI&rel=1&border=0]

As a Christian, I take offense at this. I believe Mike Huckabee is making a mockery of my faith, and my belief in prayer. This video took place at the Republican Governors Association Dinner in 2004. ThinkProgress has the transcript. Talk about mixing politics and religion!

It turns my stomach to think that people believe men like this should run our great country.

Tags: Governor Mike Huckabee

As if we don’t already have enough reasons to buy local, the King of Burgers has given us an extra one, apparently worth an entire penny.

Migrant farm workers in Florida earn 45 pennies for each 32 pound bucket of tomatoes they pick. A whopping 45 cents. And Burger King wants to reward them by giving them a 40% pay cut for Christmas.

In 2005, Florida tomato pickers gained their first significant pay raise since the late 1970s when Taco Bell ended a consumer boycott by agreeing to pay an extra penny per pound for its tomatoes, with the extra cent going directly to the farm workers. Last April, McDonald’s agreed to a similar arrangement, increasing the wages of its tomato pickers to about 77 cents per bucket. But Burger King, whose headquarters are in Florida, has adamantly refused to pay the extra penny — and its refusal has encouraged tomato growers to cancel the deals already struck with Taco Bell and McDonald’s.

And in case you don’t think the immigration debate is worthy of much attention, here’s one that should make you rush to one side or the other:

Migrant farm laborers have long been among America’s most impoverished workers. Perhaps 80 percent of the migrants in Florida are illegal immigrants and thus especially vulnerable to abuse. During the past decade, the United States Justice Department has prosecuted half a dozen cases of slavery among farm workers in Florida. Migrants have been driven into debt, forced to work for nothing and kept in chained trailers at night. The Coalition of Immokalee Workers — a farm worker alliance based in Immokalee, Fla. — has done a heroic job improving the lives of migrants in the state, investigating slavery cases and negotiating the penny-per-pound surcharge with fast food chains.

That’s right. Slavery, right here in the Good ‘ol US of A in the 21st century.

Back to the topic, though. The Florida Tomato Growers Exchange, which represents about 90% of the tomato growers in Florida, is making threats against any grower who accepts the extra $.01 for the workers.

Not sure how any of this fits together? Well, if Burger King hadn’t refused to pay the extra penny, McDonalds and Taco Bell would not be backing out of their new agreements which amount to about $.77 per bucket, up from the current $.45.

Burger King has justified its behavior by claiming that it has no control over the labor practices of its suppliers. “Florida growers have a right to run their businesses how they see fit,” a Burger King spokesman told The St. Petersburg Times.

Yet the company has adopted a far more activist approach when the issue is the well-being of livestock. In March, Burger King announced strict new rules on how its meatpacking suppliers should treat chickens and hogs. As for human rights abuses, Burger King has suggested that if the poor farm workers of southern Florida need more money, they should apply for jobs at its restaurants.

I’m adding Burger King to my list of places not to spend money at. They’re right up there with Wal-Mart, in my opinion.

If you’d like to do more, you can always write:

John W. Chidsey
Chief Executive Officer
Burger King Corporation
5505 Blue Lagoon Drive
Miami, Florida 33126

If you’re an investor with Bain Capital, the Texas Pacific Group or Goldman Sachs Capital Partners, you should be aware that these three control most of the stock – which means that could be another avenue of action.

And, again, don’t forget that buying local benefits you and your community. Check out this list of Food and Beverage companies from Local First. And if you know of businesses that should be on this list and aren’t, encourage them to get listed.

(h/t Geekesque, one of my favorite Kossaks)

Tags: big business, Burger King